The American Destruction of the Liberal Paradigm

Jul 23, 2015

by Cameron Dominy, TFF Summer Intern Charleston Southern University

Modern American Liberalism has essentially been constructed out of the teachings of two English, Enlightenment Era political philosophers. Both Jeremy Bentham and his pupil, John Stuart Mill, contributed substantially to the ideological base that created contemporary progressive thought. Within the community of the intellectual left, both men’s accomplishments are revered, their books studied, and their paradigms supposedly replicated. The mass of the American liberals however, have moved so far away from the contentions of Bentham and Mill that realistically, it is difficult to see any significant connection between the two sets of ideals. While modern liberals claim to still believe that truth and morality are essentially relative, and largely found in the cumulative good of society, they have lost the crucial, intellectual openness required for the creation of these philosophies. American liberalism's assertion regarding humanity's core goodness, coupled with it’s seething distaste for open intellectualism, has warped it beyond all recognition from what it once was. It is a debilitated shell of its former self.

Supposedly still at the center of the modern liberal paradigm is the belief that morality, and consequently truth, are relative. Morality, in the mind of the modern liberal, is loosely based in pleasure, as well as overall societal good. As summarized by Bentham himself, “There is no taste which deserves the epithet good, unless it be the taste for such employments which, to the pleasure actually produced by them, conjoin some contingent or future utility: there is no taste which deserves to be characterized as bad, unless it be a taste for some occupation which has mischievous tendency.” Paired with this thought, there was always a following understanding of the necessity to scrutinize what society deemed as truthful and beneficial. No topic was beyond reproach for the true liberal, nothing was unexaminable. Mill even contended that this debate was essential in the liberal society. In his masterpiece On Liberty, he assured that when topics are argued, “If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.” Yet today in America, the cries of “bigotry” from our own political left seek to drown out thoughtful discussion. Constant insistence that debate has ended attempts to fervently silence opposition. We, as a society, have landed rather far from the wide open mental roots of philosophical liberalism. And why is that? Have left leaning citizens simply gained power too quickly to be bothered by it, or do they honestly not understand the implications of these actions? The unfortunate reality is that many Liberal Americans have divorced themselves entirely from the traditional liberal paradigm. They have unknowingly acquired a belief in their own absolute truth, and as a consequence can no longer insist upon internal good of humankind.

As mentioned before, a main facet of a philosophically liberal society is the ability to question all ideas, all structures, and all established norms. Idealy, the American liberal would welcome scrutinous debate of the Obergefell v Hodges decision, and even encourage opposition to discuss the issue in the public square. The exact opposite, however, is what has unfolded over the last few weeks throughout our nation, and it is chipping away at the liberal paradigm one instance at a time. The contention that the other side cannot disagree with you, and the marginalization of those who do, not only destroys Mill’s understanding of how society discerns for itself what is correct, but ultimately cements the modern liberal belief in their own absolute truth. If right and wrong were still understood by modern liberals as largely relative, there would be absolutely no issue with discussion of court decisions, no matter how “hot button” the topic. But to insist that one side be the only group allowed to voice their opinion, and that the other must be ostracized, is to claim that the side allowed to speak must be the truth. The only way a true philosophical liberal can justify merely one portion of a debate being heard is a complete admission of the absolute, infinite truth being spoken by the other side. To quiet your opposition is to insist that you must be wholly, totally, and entirely correct your standing; a contention that Bentham and Mill roll over in their graves at. American liberals have embraced the conservative concept of absolute truth. The fact that it is their truth makes the assertion no different.

Consequently, the contradictory nature of the “truth is subjective, and humans are generally good” paradigm is easily visible through these fairly hypocritical actions. Logically, if you believe that truth is subjective, and simply based upon the societal understanding of pleasure, then your ultimate, verifiable truth is the recognition of that supposed fact. It naturally follows that all actions that assert this ultimate truth of subjectiveness are intrinsically right, and all actions do the opposite are obviously wrong. In short, because the morality is based in subjectivity, one can only define what is correct as what promotes the idea of subjective truth. As stated previously, what has been established over the past few weeks is that the modern American liberal has been spending a great deal of time and energy attempting to shut down discussion, which, from the perspective of the liberal paradigm, is an insistence on their truth being the absolute truth. To intentionally end debate is therefore asserting that truth is not subjective, which ironically is the exact opposite of the only verifiable “good”, as explained in liberal philosophy. Closing off discussion is the ultimate sin, if you will, in direct contradiction to the “right” of subjective truth. This makes the actions of certain Liberal Americans essentially the one thing that can be insisted upon as “wrong” by their own definition, and yet there is a continual assertion of the good of humanity despite their personal “wrongdoing.”

To continue, one of two scenarios must be the case. Either the Liberals who don’t follow their own understanding of right and wrong are “bad” and the rest of humanity is “good” at their core, just as progressives insist in their paradigm. Or, all of humanity is intrinsically bad, it isn’t just those who don’t adhere to their own definition of right and wrong. I have no wish to pin the sins of humanity on Liberal America, so my understanding is that the second scenario is the more fitting of the two.

As the recent landmark Supreme Court decisions have poured in, we have watched an intentional, purposeful attempt to end debate of controversial issues. On a deeper level though, there has been an absolute destruction of the traditional liberal paradigm. The contradictory actions of the masses are beginning to stick out. Liberals, take note: your philosophy is being butchered by your own ranks.

Our 2016 Summer Interns

Our 2016 Summer Interns

The Family Foundation’s summer internship program has grown over the years and attracts some incredibly talented college students. This year, our 2016 intern class is bright, fun-loving, creative, driven, and faithful. With dozens of students applying for a limited number of spots, the caliber of interns continues to improve. This summer, our interns are learning about each area of the organization, from policy research to social media outreach to grassroots activism and community organizing.

One aspect of our summer internship program that continues to evolve is in Biblical worldview training and discussion. Each Friday, our interns spend several hours hearing from various experts on different issues and participate in in-depth discussions of these topics. Our goal is to continue to expand this program in future years, and I look forward to announcing more about these plans in the coming months!

I hope you’ll enjoy the brief bios below and be sure to click on their names to read more about each of them:

Abbey Jessee (Development Intern; Radford University)Abbey returns to us after interning last summer. This is her second summer interning and she is very excited to be back again. She attended Radford University and graduated in May with a degree in Marketing and a minor in Sports Administration. A fun fact about Abbey is that she has broken her arms 5 times and her foot once. Although it has been a little over a year since she’s been clumsy and broken anything and her family is hoping that the streak continues!

Grace Saunders(Social Media Intern; University of South Carolina)Grace is the Social Media Intern at TFF this summer. She will be a junior next year at the University of South Carolina, Go Cocks! She is studying Library and Information Science with the hopes of minoring in Political Science, as her dream job is to be a political analyst. Her favorite sport is tennis and she considers herself to be the next Serena Williams. Peanut Butter and Chocolate are her two top favorite foods, so the way to her heart is Reece’s and Cookout Milkshakes. She obviously got the internship start date wrong because she didn’t show up until a month through the internship. She is well traveled and considers herself an expert in traveling abroad. Grace probably knows more than you so she considers humility her best quality

Richard Wiley(Policy Intern; Liberty University)Born in Jacksonville, Florida and presently living in Goochland, Virginia, Richard was drawn to The Family Foundation because of his interest in the interaction of church and state in local politics, particularly those in the Old Dominion. He was homeschooled for much of his primary education and studied with Liberty’s dual enrollment program to complete high school with an associate’s degree. Richard graduated with a bachelor’s degree in pre-law from Liberty this spring after spending time on the University’s policy debate team, moot court team, and SGA legal team.

Evan Withrow (Grassroots Intern; Christopher Newport UniversityEvan is an excellent candidate for the new British Prime Minister. After Britain voted to leave the EU last month, Prime Minister David Cameron decided he no longer wanted to steer Britain to its uncertain future and announced his resignation. The nation will be left looking for somebody come October and much to our excitement as the first American non-profit organization to endorse an all-American candidate for Prime Minister, Evan has agreed to act in this capacity should he be chosen, so long as he gets to keep his desk and his American accent. His experience includes, but is not limited to, diligent and faithful service to his country in his softball league for several years, two years of college education at Christopher Newport University studying communications (probably the undercover kind), and YouTube. We can’t guarantee that he’ll be selected by the present monarch due to a less than advantageous situation with the unionist party, but if he succeeds at gaining the position, he’ll leverage technical jargon against malefactors better than Humphrey Appleby ever did.

Cameron Dominy (Elections and Grassroots Intern; Charleston Southern University)Cameron is very much a Yankee…yet he wears Chubbies and goes to school at Charleston Southern University. Cameron is a Former Division One Javelin Thrower, but his competitive spirit carries over which is why he is currently serving as the President pro tempore for the CSU Student Government and is also the chairman of the CSU College Republicans. The South Carolina Student Legislature is lucky to have him as their chief of staff.

Introducing Abbey Jessee

Introducing Abbey Jessee

Abbey Jessee is the Development Intern at TFF this year. This is her second summer interning and she is very excited to be back again. She attended Radford University and graduated in May with a degree in Marketing and a minor in Sports Administration. One of Abbey’s favorite times in college was when she had the opportunity to intern with the Radford Athletic Department as a Sports Marketing Intern. During this internship she worked with multiple sports teams doing advertising and promoting sporting events on and off campus as well promotions and student involvement during game time.

After, she graduated college she decided that while still looking for a job it would be beneficial to have another internship under her belt in order to gain a little more experience. Coming back to The Family Foundation she was excited to learn more about fundraising and all of the efforts that go into garnering donors. After this internship she would like to get a job doing event planning for corporations.

Her favorite thing to do is go to Virginia Tech football games with her family. This has been a tradition that has been going on even before she was born and she attended her first football game at 4 months old and has only missed a couple home games. Her favorite game that she has been to so far was when Virginia Tech played Ohio State at OSU and Virginia Tech won the game! The atmosphere was by far the craziest she has ever seen it and OSU was one of her favorite stadiums that she has been to. Her favorite movie is Sweet Home Alabama, but Frozen does come in as a close second. A fun fact about Abbey is that she has broken her arms 5 times and her foot once. Although it has been a little over a year since she’s been clumsy and broken anything and her family is hoping that the streak continues!

Abbey is excited to see what God’s plan is for her after the internship!

Introducing Cameron Dominy

Introducing Cameron Dominy

This is Cameron Dominy’s second consecutive summer interning for The Family Foundation. He returns as a Grassroots intern this time around, after spending the previous year working in Elections.

A Connecticut native, Cameron’s family currently resides in the Blacksburg area. For the majority of the year, he studies Political Science and History at Charleston Southern University in South Carolina. At his college, Cameron leads the on Campus College Republicans Chapter, and serves as the President pro tempore of the Student Government Association. Last year, he was elected to be the Governor of the South Carolina Student Legislature, a student run and perpetuated organization with thirteen college delegations and over one hundred representatives. He will continue to serve in that capacity until the upcoming spring semester. Following graduation from college, Cameron plans on pursuing a graduate degree in Political Science at either George Mason or William and Mary.

Cameron enjoys reading, good tea, and all things Boston sports. He finds collections of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short stories especially stimulating, and he frequently writes about current political issues. Cameron has a particular love for sarcasm, which much of his writing tends to reflect. He is also a former NCAA Division One athlete, as the threw the Javelin for Charleston Southern his Freshman year of college.

Cameron hopes that the experience and worldview training of two summers with the Virginia Family Foundation will allow him to be an effective voice for Christ across the American political system.